Arkansas Bar Association

Publications
The Arkansas Lawyer

Home

Young Lawyers Section Report

Someone in your office should be designated
to circulate the weekly case summaries to all attorneys
by Patrick D. Wilson

     We all know the importance of keeping up with current Arkansas law. This can be a daunting task considering the number of cases decided each year. Your Association now provides weekly summaries of the significant Arkansas Supreme Court and Arkansas Court of Appeals cases on its Web site: www.arkbar.com. The Web site is updated every Monday with decisions from the previous week. This is a great resource and time-saver that can be even more beneficial if you designate someone in your office to print a hard copy of the summary each week and circulate in the office, or send an email around with the summary as an attachment. You can quickly scan the summaries to see what areas of practice have been affected and whether any of the cases summarized will impact any of your pending cases.
     Another great time-saving resource is the online member directory. Most of us scramble to keep our Rolodex™, address book, or personal digital assistant (PDA) updated with important contact information. Your Association takes some of this burden off of you by providing current contact information for your fellow Association members through the online member directory. The information is updated almost daily and contains current phone and fax numbers, office addresses, and e-mail addresses with a live link that takes you straight to members' e-mail.
     One of the best parts about being active in the YLS is the chance to interact with some of the best lawyers in the state; however, it can be difficult to remember the names of everyone that you meet at an Association meeting or CLE program. If you can remember what city the attorney was from, you can look up all of the members from that city in the online member directory. You can also perform searches in the directory by last name, county, or state.
     Both of these online benefits are password protected for Association members only and are accessible from the home page of the Association's Web site: www.arkbar.com. I encourage you to make good use of these two excellent member benefits. I have included below a recent summary.•

SIGNIFICANT DECISIONS IN THE ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
MARCH 16, 2006

CIVIL PROCEDURE

VAN BUREN SCHOOL DISTRICT V. JONES, No. 05-861 (3-16-06)

     The trial court's class action certification of more than 400 teachers was affirmed, where the Supreme Court agreed that the requirements of Ark. R. Civ. 23 were satisfied, rejecting the arguments that it would be difficult to determine class membership. Plaintiff's motion alleged that the teachers in his county had "uncompensated non-instructional duties" each day, with "passing periods", shortened lunch breaks, afternoon faculty meetings and other unpaid obligations.
     The school district argued that it would be difficult to determine the class, adding that a teacher workday was undefined to length. In focusing on the first argument, the circuit court and appeals court ruled that the number of certified teachers who performed duties without compensation was determinable. It will not be necessary to look into the merits of the claims to determine class members, so the trial court did not abuse its discretion in certifying this class.
     Each plaintiff's damages was estimated to average $500 yearly, and the Supreme Court noted that absent class action status, it might be difficult to justify litigation. Each of the required elements in Ark. R. Civ. P. 23 were discussed and found to have been satisfied. As to common issues of law and fact, the opinion noted that there is no requirement for identical issues, as long as there is something in common for the class, and here that issue was met. It was noted that after litigation arose, the district paid teachers for uncompensated lunch periods in some of its schools, showing that it is feasible to determine the hours alleged to be unpaid.